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Theoretical studies of the excited states of p-cyanophenylalanine and comparisons with the natural amino acids phenylalanine and tyrosine

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Abstract

The absorption and fluorescence properties of the non-natural amino acid p-cyanophenylalanine (PheCN) were examined using high-level ab initio methods and were compared to those of natural amino acids phenylalanine and tyrosine. Single-reference and multireference methods were surveyed for their accuracy in predicting the excited state energies and transition dipole moments of the chromophores and the corresponding amino acids. The excitation energies were found to be very similar between the chromophores and the various conformers of the amino acids for all three amino acids studied here, but the transition dipole moments and consequently the radiative lifetimes were very sensitive to conformation. In agreement with experimental data, PheCN is predicted to have increased fluorescence intensity compared to phenylalanine and the amino acid group is partly responsible for this effect.

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Acknowledgments

Support by the National Science Foundation under grant CHE-1213614 is acknowledged. SM thanks the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation for support during a visit to Germany where part of this paper was written. SLM thanks the Undergraduate Research Program of the College of Science and Technology at Temple University for partial support.

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  1. Department of Chemistry, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA, 19122, USA

    Stephen L. Meloni & Spiridoula Matsika

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  1. Stephen L. Meloni
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  2. Spiridoula Matsika
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Correspondence to Spiridoula Matsika.

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Dedicated to the memory of Professor Isaiah Shavitt and published as part of the special collection of articles celebrating his many contributions.

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Meloni, S.L., Matsika, S. Theoretical studies of the excited states of p-cyanophenylalanine and comparisons with the natural amino acids phenylalanine and tyrosine. Theor Chem Acc 133, 1497 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00214-014-1497-2

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